How To Understand Arts?

A HUMANITIES PRIMER : HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE ARTS

(PART 1)

1.      To understand a work of art (a building, a poem, a song, a symphony)

i.                  We need to keep our ‘rapture’ (our emotional response and connection) but make it less ‘careless’, less superficial and subjective, less restricted to that which we recognize.

ii.                  We need to enrich our appreciation by searching for a meaning that goes beyond ourselves. It involves:-

a.       Understanding the intent or goal of the artist

b.      The elements of form present in the work

c.       The ways in which those elements contribute to the artist’s goal

d.      The context within which the artwork evolved

e.       The connections of the work to other works

iii.               Understanding an artwork requires intellectual involvement as well as an emotional connection

2.      Approaches to the analysis of literature, art, and music

i.                    When we analyze a work of art, we ask two questions:

a.       What is the artist trying to do?

b.      How well is it done?

ii.                  To answer these questions, we can examine the formal elements of the work

a.       Approach known as formalism

                                                                          i.      Formalism

1.      A formal is concerned with the aesthetic (artistic) elements of a work separate from context

2.      A formal analysis of painting, sculpture, or architectural structure

a.       Examines its line, shape, color, texture, and composition, as well as the artist’s technical ability within the medium used; it is not concerned with anything extraneous to the work itself.

3.      A formal analysis of a literary work

a.       Short story or novel, would explore the relationships among theme, plot, characters, and setting, as well as how well the resources of language – word choice, tone, imagery, symbol, and so on – are used to support the other elements

4.      A formal analysis of a film

a.       Explore theme, plot, characters (as developed both verbally and non-verbally), and setting as well as how the resources of cinematography – camera techniques, lighting, sound, editing, and so on – support the other elements.

5.      In a formal analysis, time and place exist only within the work

~the contextual approach will be post in part 2~ 

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